BIOL 1714: General Botany

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Be able to identify and explain the function of different plant meristematic tissues - apical, vascular cambium, cork cambium, and intercalary meristems.
• Identify the conduction systems of plants and give the function of each cell component of these systems.
• Distinguish between primary and secondary tissues.
• Contrast the stems of herbaceous and woody dicots with the stems of monocots.
• Understand the composition of wood and its annual rings, sapwood, heartwood, and bark.
• Distinguish among rhizomes, stolons, tubers, bulbs, corms, cladophylls, and tendrils.
• Learn at least 10 human uses of wood and stems in general.
• Know the primary functions of forms of roots.
• Learn the root regions and know the function of each, including root hairs and all tissues.
• Understand the differences among the various types of specialized roots; know at least 10 practical uses of roots.
• Learn the external forms and parts of leaves and know the function of a typical leaf and its specific tissues and cells.
• Understand the differences among pinnate, palmate, and dichotomous venation and also the difference between simple and compound leaves.
• Contrast tendrils, spines, storage leaves, flower pot leaves, window leaves, reproductive leaves, floral leaves, and different types of insect-trapping leaves.
• Explain why deciduous leaves turn various colors in the fall and how such leaves are shed.
• Know at least 15 uses of leaves by humans.
• Explain diffusion, osmosis, turgor, imbibition, and active transport.
• Know the pathway, movement, and utilization of water in plants.
• Understand how a good agricultural soil is developed from raw materials; compare sand, silt, and clay particles.
• Contrast the various forms of soil water with regard to their specific location and availability to plants.
• Know distinctions among growth, differentiation, development, hormones, and vitamins.
• Identify the types of plant hormones, describe the major functions of each, and discuss commercial applications for each.
• Understand photoperiodism and distinguish among short-day, long-day, intermediate-day, and day-neutral plants.
• Know what the binomial system of nomenclature is, how it developed, and how it is currently used.
• Learn several reasons for recognizing more than two kingdoms of living organisms and understand the basis for Whittaker's five-kingdom system.
• Construct a dichotomous key.
• Identify the organisms classified in the Kingdom Monera & Viruses.
• Know the basic forms of bacteria, know at least 10 bacteria useful to humans, and understand how they are useful.
• Explain how prokaryotic cells differ from eukaryotic cells.
• Understand the various ways in which disease bacteria are transmitted, describing how each type of disease bacterium functions in causing disease.
• Understand what cyanobacteriae are and explain how they are useful to humans.
• Know the features that are members of the Kingdom Protista share with one another and identify the basic ways in which they differ.
• Understand how diatoms differ in structure from other members of the division Chrysophyta.
• Learn the different forms of algae and at least two features that distinguish each of them.
• Diagram the life cycles of Chlamydomonas, Ulothrix, Spirogyra, and Oedogonium.
• Know at least 20 economically important uses of algae.
• Know the general features that distinguish Kingdom Fungi from the other kingdoms.
• Distinguish the subkingdoms on the basis of their cells or hyphae, and their reproduction.
• Know five economically important fungi in each of the three different classifications.
• Know the basic structural differences between bryophytes and vascular plants.
• Distinguish the four divisions of seedless vascular plants from one another.
• Know all of the structures involved in Alternation of Generations in a fern.
• Explain what a fossil is and distinguish among the various types of fossils.